1928 - 1987

Andy Warhol was an American artist associated with Pop Art. He was a painter, an avant-garde filmmaker, a commercial illustrator, writer and celebrity. He showed an early artistic talent and studied commercial art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 1949, he moved to New York City and began a successful career in magazine illustration and advertising.

During the 1960s, Warhol transformed himself from an advertising illustrator into one of the most famous American artists of the day. In many ways, he helped define the decade. His work from this period revolves around American Pop Culture. He painted dollar bills, celebrities, brand name products, and images from newspaper clippings - many of the latter were iconic images from headline stories of the decade. His subjects were instantly recognizable, and often had a mass appeal.

From these beginnings he developed his later style and subjects. Instead of working on a signature subject matter, he worked more and more on a signature style, slowly eliminating the hand-made from the artistic process. Warhol frequently used silkscreening; his later drawings were traced from slide projections. Warhol went from being a painter to being a designer of paintings. At the height of his fame as a painter, Warhol had several assistants who produced his silkscreen multiples, following his directions to make different versions and variations.

Warhol produced both comic and serious works; his subject could be a soup can or an electric chair. He often painted in bright colors - whether he depicted celebrities, everyday objects, or images of suicide, car crashes and disasters.

Warhol worked across a wide range of media throughout his career - painting, photography, drawing, and sculpture. In addition, he was a highly prolific filmmaker. Warhol himself became a celebrity during his lifetime, appearing frequently in newspapers and magazines.

Andy Warhol was a methodical and obsessive person with a great love of art, wealth and fame. He amassed a great fortune during his life time and achieved fame like no painter before him had achieved. He merged art, wealth and fame producing the Pop Artist Andy Warhol.